Three Impossible Things
by The Plaid Slytherin
Summary: After the Valiant, the Doctor and Jack make an attempt to get Rose back from across the Void, but there are factors they haven't considered. Ten/Jack/Rose OT3.
1. Prologue

The Void between the worlds was howling nothingness. Nothing could live there, or even die there. Things simply _weren't_. The Void between the worlds was Hell.

Rose Tyler crossed Hell every day, looking for a man called the Doctor.

She had been doing this since he had left her on the other side of the Void, in a world where she wasn't even supposed to exist. Rose knew that crossing the Void was dangerous, but she was unwilling to take that as a good-bye.

Not only because the Void was so much _nothing_ that, even for the brief second she spent in it, it nearly drove her mad. Not only because these continuous trips weakened the walls that separated the universes.

Toshiko had explained to Rose about the butterfly effect. She knew she had to be careful or she might accidentally force her own universe out of existence.

After a while, they all began to blur together. The universe where the Doctor had died in the Time War, the universe where she had never traveled with him, the universe where the Doctor was held captive as another Time Lord ruled the Earth.

Rose was beginning to worry she would never find the world she had been born in.

A flash of light and a deserted alleyway, always the same clothes. Rose didn't want to be memorable, didn't want to do anything to cause any changes.

The Doctor's words were rattling around in her brain, though Tosh had said them, too. Don't wander off. Don't become part of events. Don't change anything unless you're supposed to.

Crossing the Void was supposed to be impossible. Rose Tyler was doing the impossible.

The Doctor would have been proud.

She thought about him constantly, wondered what he was doing. He would be all alone, she feared, just as he'd been before he had met her. After finding the universe where the Doctor–the _wrong_ Doctor–didn't know her, she found her thoughts increasingly dwelling on her first Doctor.

And with her thoughts of her first Doctor came thoughts of the man they'd traveled with, the man they'd left behind. Rose missed Jack, just as she missed everything about the universe that was home. She hoped that perhaps the Doctor and Jack would find each other. The Doctor needed someone, if Rose never found him.

A flash of light and a deserted alleyway. Rose Tyler crossed Hell again.

The Void howled and the walls between the worlds buckled. Something changed, something _shifted_, something r i p p e d.

Rose Tyler stepped on a butterfly.

"I really don't mind, though. Come with me."

"Okay." Jack's grin lit up his features.

"What?" asked the Doctor suddenly. He blinked, but Jack and Martha did not seem to notice anything amiss.

"I'd love to come with you," said Jack, beaming.


	2. Chapter 1

Jack hoped he wasn't misinterpreting the Doctor's silence after Martha's departure. While he knew the man had a tendency toward the standoffish, Jack hoped this didn't mean the Doctor hadn't really meant what he'd said.

_I don't really mind… as long as you don't stay long._

I don't really mind… as long as Martha is there.

I don't really mind…

"So," said Jack, looking up at the Doctor, whose head was bent over the controls.

The Doctor looked up at him, their eyes meeting. Jack swallowed hard, both against the jelly-legs feeling and the sense that those brown eyes could see straight into his soul.

The Doctor looked away after a second and rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen, Jack," he began. Before he could get any farther, he was interrupted by the Titanic crashing through the side of the TARDIS.

When they trooped back into the TARDIS hours later, it suddenly occurred to the Doctor how tired Jack looked. He was certainly trying not to show it, was making a good effort, but there was something of his human tiredness that showed right through and Jack looked as if he was about to keel over.

"You should get some rest," said the Doctor, patting him on the back.

Jack looked lost. "Where?" he asked.

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "Not sure where your bedroom's got to," he muttered. The beginning of their adventure seemed so long ago, and Jack hadn't had a proper rest in over a year, really. The Doctor crossed out of the console room and opened the first door on his left, peering inside.

"Don't need it," said Jack, shrugging. "Anything'll do."

"Oh, come on, Jack." The Doctor headed back over to him and helped him off with his coat. "You'll feel better in the morning." He tossed Jack's coat onto the strut where his own hung. He sort of liked how they looked together.

Jack didn't offer much protest as the Doctor led him into the bedroom. It was somewhat sparsely decorated, not at all as personal as Jack's old room had been, but it would do. Wearily, Jack made his way over to the bed, kicked off his boots and crawled under the covers. "G'night, Doc," he muttered.

"Good night, Jack," the Doctor replied, quietly closing the door behind him.

Alone in the corridor, he sighed. The TARDIS hummed at him sternly. "He's all right," said the Doctor, crossing the hall to his own room. His hand curled hesitantly around the doorknob, and he wondered whether or not he should actually go in. Maybe he'd just read in bed for a while. He wasn't sure if he could bring himself to sleep, even after all that he'd been through, but being comfortable sounded nice.

He found, however, that he couldn't concentrate on anything. Even the most complicated Gallifreyan physics tomes failed to capture his interest. He went as far as trying one of those silly books Rose had always been reading, but he found that just, well, made him think of Rose.

He sighed and leaned back against the headboard of his bed. Maybe he _ought_ to try to sleep.

"What are you reading?" said Jack from the doorway. "_The Sheik's Stolen Bride_?"

The Doctor sat bolt upright, shoving the open book off his chest. "No, no, wasn't reading that." He looked up at Jack. "Don't you _knock_?"

Jack shrugged. "I did. Maybe you were so absorbed in the sheik you didn't hear me." He waggled his eyebrows.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, but he had to admit he was glad for the company. "Sit down," he said, patting the bedspread next to him. "What do you need?"

There was a brief flicker of hesitation in Jack's eyes, but he did sit down. There was a heavy silence before the Doctor opened his mouth.

"Are you… are you really all right, Jack?"

"Of course I'm all right," Jack replied, his gaze wandering around the room, instead of fixed on the Doctor. "Don't think I've ever been in here. I'll count this as an accomplishment."

One of the Doctor's hearts skipped a beat. He sort of… well, the thought that Jack had wanted to see his bedroom… He shook his head. "You _would_," he said lazily.

Jack chuckled, though it sounded odd to the Doctor's ears. He paused. "You know, I still can't believe it. That I… found you again. It was just so long."

There was a long pause as the Doctor decided what to say.

"I'm sorry," he finally said, turning to look at Jack directly. "I'm sorry you had to wait so long… No. I'm sorry I left you in the first place." He rubbed his mouth. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry, Jack."

Jack paused and nodded. "Thanks," he said quietly. He still seemed too tense–something else was bothering him.

The Doctor slid closer, concerned. "Jack, what is it?" He reached up and brushed Jack's hair back from his forehead. Jack flinched.

"It's nothing."

The Doctor sniffed. "Doesn't sound like nothing to me."

Jack shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I'm okay now."

The Doctor rubbed his face. "Jack, I'm sorry. For everything." He paused, his eyes searching the room, looking everywhere but directly at Jack. "For last year."

Jack remained quiet. Finally, he said, "That wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was," said the Doctor. He sighed. "You wouldn't have been in that position if it weren't for me, Jack. Of course, it's my fault."

"That doesn't make it your _fault_," said Jack. "You didn't ask for it to happen."

"But I could have prevented it, I should have been able to stop him, I–"

Jack shrugged. "It's not like I was the only one who had a hard year."

"Someone has to take responsibility."

"What, just because you're a Time Lord?" Jack snorted. "You don't have to take responsibility for everything, you know."

The Doctor sniffed. "Well, who else is there?"

Jack gave him a small smile. "Well, for one, there's me."

The Doctor paused.

"I did a lot of thinking," Jack went on. "You're not the only one equipped to deal with things like this."

The Doctor was still trying to process this when Jack kissed him.

The Doctor froze. Jack had kissed him before, back when he'd been in the other body, but then, he hadn't been ready for it, hadn't had time to process it. Now… He wasn't any more ready for it, but he didn't have an army of Daleks bearing down on him, so he at least had the better part of his brain to devote to kissing back.

And Jack really was a fantastic kisser. Why hadn't he remembered that from before? He was doing some sort of little sucking thing on the Doctor's lower lip, which was really quite great.

"Ah, you should've done that sooner," he said, when they broke apart.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Because the last time I–"

"Well…" said the Doctor. "It wasn't all that. And I said I was sorry."

Jack smiled. "I can accept that," he said gently.

They sat there beside each other for several silent minutes, the Doctor's leg touching Jack's hesitantly. Finally, the Doctor said, "I really am sorry, Jack. I wasn't expecting you to come with me after what I put you through."

Jack kissed him again. "Wasn't you," he murmured, running his fingers through the Doctor's hair.

"I just want to make it up to you," the Doctor replied, stretching out on his back.

"No, it's really okay." Jack lay down on his side, resting his hand on the Doctor's stomach. He found the weight of it oddly comforting. "I… It wasn't that bad."

"Not that bad? Jack, you were–"

"Yeah, but when you've been alive this long, with my condition? You kind of learn how to… turn it off."

The Doctor frowned. "Jack…" He pushed Jack's hands off him and raised himself up on his elbow so he was facing Jack.

"I told you I did a lot of thinking," said Jack. "Thought a lot about you… thought about Rose." The Doctor glanced away. "I'm sorry I missed her, too. I should have been there. If I'd been paying attention… I'd have been there at Canary Wharf. I could have done something."

The Doctor sighed. "Believe me, Jack, since that day I've gone over and over what I could have done, should have done." He closed his eyes. "She's stuck in a parallel universe. There's no getting her back."

Jack frowned. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because I tried. I tried and I tried. For months, I did nothing but try and get her back." The Doctor swallowed hard, not wanting to let his voice shake. "I couldn't." The memory of that failure was raw, the most painful the moment the Doctor had realized he had to use the last little bit of the gap he had to say good-bye, rather than allow Rose to come through. "I'd have spent the rest of my life on it, but… it's impossible. I'm sorry."

Jack lay his head down next to the Doctor's and rested his chin on the Doctor's shoulder. "Stop blaming yourself. It's not your fault."

The Doctor didn't say anything.

Jack kissed the side of his jaw. "There has to be some way."

"There isn't."

"Hey." Jack sat up. "You said I was impossible and here I am." He grinned.

The corners of the Doctor's lips twitched. "I suppose that's true."

Jack leaned in close. "So, can we try?" His lips were just inches from the Doctor's and he had a sudden image of Rose nestled on his other side, her blonde hair cascading down to his chest.

"We can try," the Doctor murmured, pulling Jack in for another kiss.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form


	3. Chapter 2

Donna Noble walked through the deserted office with a spring in her step. She was beginning to sort of enjoy this girl investigator business. Even if she never found the Doctor, she was going to get to the bottom of this Adipose thing and if the Doctor didn't show up, well, Donna didn't mind taking the credit for saving the world. And listening in on this conversation seemed like something someone who had their eye on saving the world might do.

She pressed her ear harder against the door. If one were inclined to, for example, listen in on the performance reviews of snotty-nosed gossipmongers like Susie Croft, one was normally aided by the standard paper-thin walls of an office. This one, however, must have been sound-proofed. Donna lifted herself up cautiously to peer in the window.

She found herself staring right into the most beautiful pair of blue eyes she had ever seen. The face the eyes were set in was perfect, too. The face raised its eyebrows and smirked at her. Donna nearly fainted.

And not just because of the fact that right next to the face was the Doctor.

The Doctor was staring at her in bewilderment. _Donna?_ he mouthed.

_Who's he?_ Donna asked, pointing.

_Who's she?_ the face mouthed at the Doctor.

_What?_ mouthed the Doctor, looking back and forth between Donna and the man beside him. _What? _

_I'm Donna_, said Donna, pointing to herself with exaggerated movements._ Donna Noble. I was looking_ — she pointed to her eyes —_ for the Doctor_ — she pointed to the Doctor.

_What?_ the Doctor continued.

_You_, explained Donna, pointing at him.

The Doctor pointed at himself. _Me?_

The man said something Donna couldn't make out, but it might have been _Hey, sexy_.

The Doctor glared at him. _Stop it_.

_What? I was just–_

Both the Doctor and the man froze.

"Are we interrupting you?" asked Miss Foster.

Donna bolted.

The Doctor and Jack pelted across the roof and down the stairs. They met the mystery woman (the Doctor called her Donna) halfway and she and the Doctor embraced. Jack took this opportunity to discretely take her in. She was a redhead–and she certainly seemed feisty. Nice chest, too.

The Doctor snapped his fingers under Jack's nose. "Not really the place, Jack. Now, come on!" He grabbed both Jack and Donna by the hands and pulled them up the stairs.

"You don't have to tell me twice," said Jack.

"Oh, you're American!" Donna exclaimed.

"Not exactly," Jack replied, stumbling.

"See, you can't run in that thing," said Donna, nodding at Jack's greatcoat. "That's why I decided to wear this." She indicated her sensible pantsuit. "I figured that out after awhile. There's a lot of running involved in this line of work."

"What exactly is it that you're doing?" the Doctor asked. He pushed open the door to the roof and made a beeline for the cradle hanging beside it.

"Looking for you!" exclaimed Donna. "Because I thought, after last Christmas, well, there's really something to all this alien stuff after all! So, I started looking. Places you might be. I decided anything suspicious, anything… _supernatural_."

The Doctor swung himself into the cradle without offering comment. "Come on, you two," he said briskly. He held his hand out to Jack and he joined him. Donna looked skeptical.

"In that thing?" she asked.

Jack smiled encouragingly at her.

"All right, all right, if you say so," she muttered.

The Doctor looked at Jack over Donna's head, as she climbed in. "Why would you do it for him but not for me?"

Jack shrugged. "Guess it's just my amazing charm."

"Is that what it is?" The Doctor jabbed his sonic screwdriver at the controls and they began to descend.

"You were certainly charmed," said Jack, grinning.

Donna turned to Jack. "You know, I never caught your name," she said.

He was about to open his mouth when the cradle dropped suddenly. All three of them fell to the floor.

"We're going to crash!" Donna moaned. The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the control box, stopping their descent.

"She must have a sonic device of her own," the Doctor said. He sounded very put out, like a girl arriving at a dance to see her bitterest enemy wearing the same dress.

"They're cutting the cable!" Donna shouted. Jack tried to look up, just as the cradle tilted and Donna tumbled out. She grabbed Jack's leg and Jack tightened his grip on the railing.

"Don't. Let. Go," she said tersely.

"Don't plan to," said Jack.

"I still don't know your name," said Donna.

"Captain Jack Harkness," said Jack.

"Captain of what?"

"Do you two mind?" groaned the Doctor, from above their heads. He was struggling with the window.

"How am I supposed to get up there?" asked Donna.

"We'll manage." The Doctor hauled himself into the window and then reached around for Jack.

Together, the Doctor and Jack pulled Donna into the building. She brushed herself off. "Oh no."

Miss Foster and her bodyguards were standing right in front of them.

"It was kind of cute, actually," said Donna. "For fat. Like you could have them for pets."

Jack shrugged. "I've seen cuter fat."

The three of them were walking back to the alley where Jack and the Doctor had left the TARDIS.

"You really aren't American, are you?" she said. "Oh my God. Are you an alien, too?"

Jack opened his mouth to reply when Donna bolted forward again. "That's my car! That is like _destiny_!" She rushed to unlock the boot of her car.

Jack glanced over at the Doctor. "You said it was a long story."

"Yeah," said the Doctor, rubbing the back of his neck. "It is."

"I'm glad she's here, though." Jack crossed his arms over his chest. "Nice to have someone to liven up the place."

The Doctor smiled fondly. " Yeah… she's brilliant. You're going to love her."

"Gorgeous redhead with a gorgeous rack? I'm half in love already."

"Jack." The Doctor gave him a pointed look.

Jack returned his serious gaze. "Just... don't forget."

The Doctor's eyes darkened. "I won't."

"Keys!" Donna suddenly exclaimed, patting her pockets. "I still have my mum's car keys. Won't be a minute." She rushed out of the alley. The Doctor gave Jack a pointed look and he followed her.

From a distance, he watched Donna place her mother's keys in a bin and snap her phone shut. A small crowd had gathered at the spot Miss Foster had met her end and Donna tapped one of the gawkers on the shoulder, said something quickly to her and left.

Jack started.

Rose. It was _Rose_.

He pushed forward, shoving his way through the crowd. He tried to call out her name but no sound came out. When he reached Donna, Rose (was it really her?) was gone.

"That woman," Jack panted. "Who was she?"

Donna looked at him as if he were insane. "How do I know? She was just someone. Come on! TARDIS!"

Jack was waiting for the Doctor in his bedroom. It had become something of a habit for them. The Doctor didn't sleep, but he'd sit up and read while Jack did, and the past couple of nights, Jack suspected the Doctor was starting to allow himself a bit of a kip.

"Donna all settled?" he asked.

"Yup," said the Doctor, removing his trainers. "This'll be fun, you, me and Donna."

Jack sat up straighter. "Doc."

"I told you, I didn't forget." He turned to face Jack. "We'll–"

"I saw her," said Jack hollowly.

"What?" asked the Doctor, staring at him.

"I saw Rose." Jack's voice was quiet.

"Where?" asked the Doctor sharply.

"Just out there," he said. "I just saw her for a second. I'm not even… I'm not even sure it was her." But he knew it was. It had to be.

The Doctor shook his head. "Jack, it couldn't be. You know that. There's no way she could have come through on her own." He rubbed the back of his neck and sucked air through his teeth. "When are we… she couldn't…" He shook his head. "There's no way. Must have just been… someone who looked like her."

He sat down next to Jack and put his arm around him. "We will find her, though. I promise." He kissed Jack's temple.

Jack looped his arms around the Doctor's neck. "You do, huh?"

The Doctor paused. "Jack, it'll be hard. I couldn't figure it out before, but maybe together."

"Yeah," said Jack, shifting so he was straddling the Doctor's legs. "Two heads are better than one."

The Doctor smiled and pulled him in for a kiss, hooking his thumbs in Jack's braces. Jack braced himself on the headboard as they kissed, pleased when he elicited a soft moan from the Doctor.

"Tomorrow morning, yeah?" he asked.

"Mmm," said the Doctor, tilting his head back as Jack trailed kisses down his neck. "We'll go to the lab. I want to run some tests–oh!"

Jack smirked, nipping at that same spot on the Doctor's collarbone.

"Which means," said the Doctor, gently placing his hands on Jack's shoulders, "that you should get some rest."

Jack looked up at him. "Not tired," he said.

The Doctor kissed him chastely. "It's going to be a lot of work tomorrow," he said softly. "You'll want to go to sleep."

After a beat, Jack relented, rolling off the Doctor and stretching out on the bed.

"You going to sleep in your clothes?" asked the Doctor.

Jack waggled his eyebrows. "You wanna undress me?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes, but he slid over and began undoing Jack's braces.

Jack awoke the next morning, lying on the Doctor's arm, head pressed against his shoulder. He glanced up through his fringe. The Doctor was asleep.

Jack watched him for a few moments. He seemed near waking, based on the rate of his breathing (though Jack realized that Time Lord breathing could be totally different from human) but his face was still relaxed. He was cute when he was asleep, Jack decided, carefully pushing himself up onto his hands so he could get a better look.

He was attempting to count the Doctor's freckles when he opened his eyes.

"'Lo," the Doctor said sleepily.

"You were asleep," said Jack.

"No, I wasn't," said the Doctor, yawning. "I was in… Oh, bugger, can't come up with anything clever. I was asleep." He sat up and rolled off the bed. "Come on, let's get ourselves into the lab and see if we can't get a bit done before Donna gets up.

Jack went back to his own bedroom to shower and dress, noticing, as he did every morning, that the bedroom still wasn't personalized, aside from the wardrobe full of the kind of clothing Jack liked best. He selected a dark green shirt and gray braces, having come to suspect that was the Doctor's favorite combination. Idly, he wondered what Rose would think, remembering it had been her who'd helped him pick a lot of his clothes when they'd traveled together before.

"So, what's the plan?" Jack asked, when he met the Doctor in the corridor after his shower.

"Plan?" The Doctor jammed his hands into the pockets of his blue trousers. "There's no plan. Spontaneity! Things work best with spontaneity."

"Oh?" Jack grinned. "I can be spontaneous, too."

They were so absorbed in their conversation that they passed the monitor without even glancing at it, missing the blonde woman shouting their names.

Rose swore and dropped the device she held onto the table. "It didn't work," she said. "I don't think they saw me."

"Well, I told you it would be all just chance," said Tosh. "There are so many different factors at work here that it would have been nearly impossible to get results on the first try." She tucked her hair behind her ears and reached for the alien artifact Rose had discarded. "At least you got through the Void. That's better than last time."

"Last time, I _physically_ got through," she muttered. "And it was the wrong universe."

"You're the one who wanted to keep trying other methods while the dimension cannon cooled down." Toshiko studied the device, which was about as long and as thick as her arm, made of heavy black plastic. "I really wish I could get a look at his ship. It really looks quite amazing."

Rose smiled fondly. She loved telling Tosh about her travels with the Doctor. The other woman seemed like the only one at Torchwood who really understood or cared about Rose's stories. Everyone else seemed to think she was either delusional or just spoiled, the boss's daughter wanting Torchwood to take her back to her alien boyfriend. Tosh seemed to understand that it was more than that.

"The TARDIS is amazing," said Rose wistfully. "She's alive, you can feel it. She has her own personality, and–" Rose paused. "And the last time I couldn't get back to the Doctor, she helped me. She put a bit of herself into me and together, we saved the Doctor."

"What do you mean a bit of herself?" Tosh prodded.

"Her heart," said Rose. "I don't really… I don't really remember how it happened. I just remember… I remember all this light, and I was speaking to the TARDIS, and the TARDIS was speaking through me, and… together…" She shook her head. "I'm just not sure."

Toshiko set down her artifact. "You'll find him, Rose. We'll just keep working at it. Even if I have to fix the dimension cannon myself."

Rose smiled and squeezed her friend's hand. "Thanks, Tosh. That means a lot."

They were interrupted by the blaring of one of the Rift alarms.

Tosh sighed. "Work first, though."

"Right," said Rose thinly. "Work first."


	4. Chapter 3

"Right then!" said the Doctor brightly, rubbing his hands together. "Let's get to work. Now, Jack." He looked at him pointedly and Jack suddenly got a sinking feeling in his stomach. The Doctor looked like he didn't think Jack would like what he was about to say.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Sit up on that. I want to take a look at you." He nodded toward the lab table and Jack sat.

"We going to play doctor?" He grinned as he watched the Doctor drape a stethoscope around his neck and sort through a tray of lab instruments.

"Sort of," said the Doctor. Without preamble, he shook a thermometer furiously before jamming it into Jack's mouth. "Because you're very interesting, Jack–no, don't say anything."

Jack grunted.

The Doctor continued, strapping a blood pressure cuff around Jack's arm. "You're very interesting, Jack," he repeated. "Your condition, particularly." Jack winced as the cuff tightened. "And you… do remember how it happened, don't you?" He released the air in the cuff with a whoosh and scribbled something on his clipboard.

Jack nodded.

"I was thinking about this last night." He listened to Jack's heart and made another notation. "Now, you've never crossed the Void, unlike Rose and me. You've got no… Void stuff. But you, Jack, _you_ and _Rose_–" He tapped Jack's knee with a reflex hammer and frowned, tongue between his teeth. Jack obediently twitched his leg.

"Wha' 'bout me an' Wose?" he asked.

The Doctor plucked the thermometer from Jack's mouth. "You and Rose have a special connection," he said.

Jack's mouth dropped open.

"Exactly," said the Doctor. He began measuring Jack's head with a pair of calipers. "You know, you really are _very_ symmetrical," he remarked, nodding in approval.

"Thanks," said Jack. "I think."

"So," said the Doctor, continuing, "I believe your ability is caused by a… piece… of the Bad Wolf that Rose left in you."

Jack blinked. "Can you take it out?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry, Jack. That's irreversible. It's more of.." He waved his hand vaguely. "It's not anything physical, it's just… your _essence_. Your very makeup has changed. It's why I had a hard time looking at you at first, it's why… why you seemed wrong." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry, Jack. That's not the word I should have used."

"It's okay." Jack winked. "We all have our own prejudices."

The Doctor squeezed his hand, before launching back into his explanation. "Anyway, you're just infused with this… _stuff_, this… Bad… Wolf… _stuff_. And Rose, she had it in her too, obviously and–"

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Doc?" Jack asked incredulously. "I mean, it _is_ called _Bad_ Wolf."

"Oh, I don't know." The Doctor ran a hand over his hair. "It's just a name. Shall we call it something else? How about Charlie? I like Charlie, don't you?"

"Okay," said Jack. "So, I have Charlie in me." He paused. "Sounds dirty. I haven't had a Charlie in me since 1963." He grinned.

The Doctor gave him a pointed look. "Well, you do. And if there's still bits of Charlie in Rose, even just the tiniest little bit of her that remembers Charlie…" He grinned. "We should be able to pull her through."

* * *

They found Donna in the kitchen, sipping a cup of tea.

"Where were you two?" she asked. "This place is like a bloody hedge maze. I was just opening doors."

"See, you'll fit right in!" declared the Doctor, grinning fondly. "That's been my policy all along. Just keep opening doors. Eventually, you'll find where the tea is."

He and Jack joined her at the table. Jack tried to concentrate on breakfast, but his mind kept returning to what he'd learned earlier, that there was something special about him specifically that could bring Rose back.

The Doctor and Donna were discussing where to go that day.

"Last year, I went to Egypt," she was saying. "It was awful, though, just a package holiday. You can never do anything on a package holiday, you can't get away from the group."

"Package holidays," said the Doctor derisively. "Always rubbish." He cocked his head, thinking. "Let's do Egypt, then!"

"Really?" asked Donna.

"Oh, sure," said the Doctor, standing up. "We'll do Egypt properly. No one should have to see Egypt on package holiday."

* * *

"Oh my God," said Donna. She was standing two steps from the TARDIS's doors, staring at the buildings in front of them. "This is _Ancient_ Egypt."

The Doctor bounced on the balls of his feet, hands in his coat pockets. "What sort of Egypt were you expecting?"

"Regular Egypt! Modern Egypt!"

"Regular is relative," said the Doctor.

Donna waved her hand at the bustling marketplace located outside the alley the TARDIS was parked in. "It's not regular to me!"

"That's what we're here for!" the Doctor declared. "Expanding your idea of regular. You've seen the pyramids, done all the tourist stuff. Now, let's have a look at the other parts. The people, the market, the…" He waved a hand vaguely. "The trash… heaps."

"You could do a bit of a better parking job," noted Donna. "I just bought these boots."

"So, where are we?" Jack cut in. "When are we?"

The Doctor frowned. "This is Asyut," he said quietly. "Around 3100 BC." Then, suddenly, his face broke into a grin. If Donna noticed his expression, she didn't say anything. "See, that's different. More interesting than the boring old pyramids, don't you think?"

Donna frowned. "But this isn't, like, what we think when we think of Ancient Egypt?"

"Ancient's relative," said the Doctor. "To Jack, your civilization is Ancient Earth."

Donna whipped around to face Jack. He gave her a little wave. "You're an alien," she said simply.

"Technically," said Jack. "I wasn't born on Earth."

"But you look human."

Jack grinned. "Donna Noble, I can tell you, I'm _all_ human."

"But you're not from Earth! Doesn't that make you an alien?"

Jack grinned. "If you say so. I've spent enough time here that Earth feels like home."

The Doctor smiled back at him and Jack grinned back. Donna looked glanced between them.

"I'm an authentic alien," the Doctor added, seemingly feeling left out of the conversation.

Donna looked back to Jack. "If you were born on another planet, then how can you be human?" She stepped over a small pile of… something, looking like she regretted wearing those shoes.

"Same way you are," Jack told her, following. "My ancestors left Earth centuries before I was born–"

"Centuries?" repeated Donna.

"Jack was born in the fifty-first," the Doctor added, seeming glad to provide this information.

"Anything else I should know?" Donna asked.

"I'm a great kisser," said Jack.

The three friends entered the marketplace together, carefree and unaware that the eyes of the Wolf were on them.

* * *

Donna was quite taken with the market, and the Doctor was able to forget at least a little bit of his trepidation and enjoy watching her very first trip to the past.

"Always love watching them," he said, leaning over to Jack. "Their first TARDIS trip." He beamed. Donna was walking around the stalls, still seemingly in disbelief that she'd actually traveled back in time. "Just love seeing their faces."

Jack grinned.

"I remember you," the Doctor continued. "First time you saw the TARDIS."

"Well, I hadn't seen the outside yet!" Jack reminded him. "That was the surprise–getting out and not only being in Machu Picchu but seeing that I was just in that little blue box."

The Doctor's grin widened. "That was a fun old time, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," said Jack, his gaze faraway. "It was."

Again reminded of what they had come to do, the Doctor reached down and slipped his hand into Jack's. They stood there for a moment, their joined hands hidden in the folds of their coats.

Finally, Jack said, "So, what's wrong? I can tell–you didn't seem to want to come here."

The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. "It's… too much of a coincidence. Jack, you do know the other name for Asyut?"

Jack shook his head.

"City of the wolf."

Jack's eyes widened. "Yeah, definitely not a coincidence."

"Indeed. I think…" The Doctor cocked his head. "Where's Donna?" There was no sign of their friend, who, just a few seconds prior, it seemed, has been busily examining a stall selling carpets only a few feet away from where the Doctor and Jack stood.

Jack stiffened. The Doctor let go of his hand and darted forward. "Donna!" he cried. "Donna!"

He and Jack split up, each of them covering a different section of the market. It didn't take long to come to the inevitable conclusion.

Donna was gone.

* * *

Donna woke, a dull throbbing behind her eyes making her disinclined to open them. The last thing she remembered was looking at carpets. There had been a child, and she remembered bending down to ask if he was lost and needed help. That must have been a trap, she now realized. Like she hadn't seen that one in the movies enough.

She heard the sound of stone scraping on stone and her eyes snapped open, startled. She was lying on her back, on a hard, cold surface. Slowly, she tried to sit up, blinking back the wave of dizziness that threatened to knock her out again. Whoever had kidnapped her would surely get a piece of her mind.

Gradually, she transitioned from sitting to kneeling to standing, at which point her eyes had adjusted enough to the dark to take in her surroundings.

She was in the center of an enormous, ornate room, a temple of some sort. The walls, floor and columns were all decorated with hieroglyphics and drawings of a sort of dog-man-looking thing. A few yards away was a dais with an enormous statue of the dog-like animal.

Donna made to take a few steps forward but found she couldn't. Every which way she turned, she could make no progress.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," she muttered under her breath. There was a circular pattern on the floor and there seemed to be some kind of invisible fence around it that Donna couldn't cross.

"Oi!" she shouted, her voice echoing in the empty chamber. "What's this place?"

There was no response. She felt dread curl in the pit of her stomach. "Should've stuck with the package tour."

* * *

The first unusual thing Rose noticed was that it was broad daylight. Usually, it was nighttime when she used the dimension cannon, because it was nighttime in Pete's World.

This was also a completely different part of London to where she'd left, though a shift like that wasn't unusual.

It was a quiet little residential street, deserted in the middle of the day as most of the inhabitants were likely at work or school.

"Where did you come from, love?"

Rose jumped and whirled around. "I'm sorry?"

The old man gestured to the empty air behind her. "You popped out of thin air. I saw you clear as day."

Rose swallowed hard. She needed to get away as quickly as possible. The effects of the dimension cannon would fade eventually and she didn't have time to waste retconning old men who saw too much. She felt the blister pack in her pocket.

How could she even be sure whether or not this was the right universe? Did it matter if she let one man in one universe see her?

She could already feel herself slipping back across the Void. She closed her eyes and let herself fade away before the eyes of a very confused Wilfred Mott.


	5. Chapter 4

The Doctor was confused over Donna's disappearance but despite this, he seemed to know exactly where to go to find her.

"I take it you have your suspicions," said Jack, hoping that if he asked, the Doctor would reveal them. Anyhow, he kept pace with the Doctor's purposeful strides, their long coats flapping together behind them.

"I don't know," was all the Doctor said, and Jack got an unpleasant shiver down his spine. "It's not… it's not right. There's something _wrong_." He shook his head. "But what's wrong? What is it?" He tugged on his hair. "Think, think, think. What _is_ it?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

The Doctor spun around, coat snapping. "Ooh, it's just… you!" He pointed a finger accusingly at Jack. "You, it's you!"

"Me?" asked Jack. "What? Now, hang on, Doctor, I thought you said–"

"No, I don't mean you're wrong, I mean… I mean…" The Doctor smacked his palm against his forehead. "You're not supposed to be here," he said slowly, as if the words were hard to get out. "Something, something's happened, something's changed and you're not supposed to be here and… oh!" He took off in another direction. Jack stood there blinking for a moment before tearing after him.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he caught up with the Doctor.

"I noticed it when you first came with me, but I didn't say anything, I didn't… it didn't seem that obvious. Like something out of the corner of your eye, that you don't notice, don't want to notice. But I'm a Time Lord, and sooner or later, I notice these things."

They'd come to an enormous white stone building fronted by columns. Jack felt that prickle on the back of his neck again. He wasn't a Time Lord, but the sense of wrongness, even he was beginning to feel it.

"And what have we been doing, you and me?" the Doctor asked in a low voice. "Since we've been together, what has been the thing we've been thinking about most?"

Jack didn't respond, but his eyes were on the two statues flanking the entrance to the temple. They were wolves.

* * *

The thing holding Donna in was nothing, but she couldn't get past it. She tried running out of the circle, but every time she did, she suddenly thought it would be a good idea to stop. She hoped the Doctor would show up soon. Not that he knew where she could be, but if he didn't find her, she couldn't see how she was going to get out of this.

"Donna!"

He was there, as if on cue, standing next to Jack, in the shadows off to the side.

"Oh, am I ever glad to see you!" she exclaimed.

"What are you doing there?" he hissed. "Come on."

"I'm _stuck_" she said. This should have been obvious. "Why would I be standing here if I wasn't _stuck_?"

The Doctor reached into his suit pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "That's odd," he murmured under his breath, his voice only audible to Donna because of the echo-prone nature of the room. "Sonic says…" He flicked something on the device and it started bleeping, its staccato cadence sounding slightly different to the other times Donna had heard it. "This is not Ancient Egyptian technology."

Donna could have told him that already. "But you're not Ancient Egyptian technology, either, Spaceman. Can't you get me out?"

The Doctor didn't respond. Instead, he looked at the floor below Donna's feet in intense concentration.

"You were not the one we were expecting," said a voice that startled all three of them. "But you will do."

* * *

"What happened there?" Mickey asked, as soon as Rose reappeared. "You were only gone a couple seconds."

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "Something… something went wrong, I don't know."

Mickey leaned over to check the display on the dimension cannon. "Might as well try again in half an hour. Want to get a coffee?"

* * *

"What are you talking about?" asked the Doctor. He took a few steps out of the shadows, heading towards Donna. Jack followed him. "What are you? Wolf-worshippers? Maybe werewolves?"

Jack didn't know what the Doctor meant by that, but he seemed to have some idea of what was going on.

Figures were now beginning to emerge from the shadows, men in doglike masks. Jack counted seven of them; they were surrounded.

"Doctor," he said.

"I see them," said the Doctor. He discreetly moved the hand clutching the sonic behind him and took another step closer to the circle were Donna was being held. "I think this is our fault, Jack," he said matter-of-factly.

"What?" asked Jack.

"Bad Wolf," said the Doctor. "She scattered it. Through time and space. And even though she's gone, it's everywhere. This is Rose Tyler's home universe and she's marked it as her own."

"We had hoped to see her," said the voice. Jack now realized it wasn't coming from any of the figures in particular; it was simply part of the air. "In her absence, we must find another host."

"And you're what?" asked the Doctor, beginning to pace. He circled Donna's prison, twirling the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "You've been around forever and you've just been created. You were planted in time, but you come from outside it." He waited, head cocked. "You're Charlie."

"Charlie?" asked Donna incredulously. "Big, disembodied voice is called Charlie?"

"It's as good a name as any," said the Doctor out of the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, and what exactly is Charlie?"

"We do not know Charlie. We are the Bad Wolf."

"Yeah," said the Doctor, resuming his pacing. "But what _is_ the Bad Wolf anyway? It's just an idea. An idea made solid. You're not anymore tangible than… than hope, or faith, or justice."

"They look pretty tangible to me," said Jack, as the masked men advanced on them further.

"Relax," murmured the Doctor. "It's just controlling them, but I doubt it can make them hurt us. It's not that powerful, is it?" He said this in a louder voice, challenging the Bad Wolf. "You're dormant, you're just waiting. It must be taking up all you have just to make these sinister characters move. This forcefield–" he indicated where Donna was being held "–piece of cake." He jabbed the sonic screwdriver in Donna's direction; there was a brief shimmer in the air and Donna reached forward, her arm passing safely through the air.

"Of course," the Doctor continued, "you're based on my TARDIS, so you should be relatively easy for me to corral." He continued to twirl the sonic in his fingers as he spoke. "You say you're looking for a host, but you should really go back where you belong."

Everything happened at once. Something–Jack couldn't put to words what exactly it was, but he recognized it as something dark, sinister and vaguely familiar–came into being. It seemed to come from the masked men, since once it left them, they collapsed, helpless.

Jack reacted without thinking.

It was going for Donna, that was all he could tell. And Jack knew that he could survive it, no matter what it was, no matter what it did to him. He could survive it.

The last remnants of the Bad Wolf entered Jack and every cell in his body began a slow death.

In a coffee shop on the other side of the Void, something in Rose Tyler twitched.

* * *

Donna stood, horrorstruck, watching as Jack collapsed to his knees, his breathing labored. She started toward him, but the Doctor grasped her shoulder.

"Hold on," he said quietly. "There's nothing we can do for him here; we have to get him back to the TARDIS."

Jack gasped for breath and lurched forward and the Doctor grabbed him.

"Doctor," said Donna hesitantly. "I don't know if we should move him. I mean, I think they say you're supposed to–"

"No, TARDIS is the best place, I'm sure. Come on."

Donna joined him, grabbing Jack's other arm and draping it around her shoulders. Jack really didn't look good and Donna thought with a feeling of dread that his survival was certainly not definite.

The Doctor must have noticed her expression, because he said, "You'd be surprised. Jack's a very resilient fellow."

"But what about these people?" she asked, indicating the unconscious men they passed.

"They'll be fine," said the Doctor. "A little dazed, won't remember what happened. It wasn't strong enough to do any real damage to them."

"Doctor," said Jack quietly. "I think–"

"Hold on, Jack," said the Doctor quietly. "Not much further now."

"No, really," Jack gasped. "I have to… you have to put me down so I can…"

"Not here," said the Doctor. "I doubt that would go over well here."

Despite the fact that he was obviously dying, Jack smirked. "True."

"Can you do something for him?" Donna asked. "Back in the TARDIS?"

"I don't know, Donna," said the Doctor. "I've just got this hunch. Little feeling. Jack needs the TARDIS, so to the TARDIS we go."

Donna didn't know exactly how to respond to this, but she just followed the Doctor. To her surprise, the people around her did not seem to take much of an interest in the two people supporting a dying man.

After what seem like eons, they reached the TARDIS. The Doctor unlocked and opened the doors one-handed and pulled Jack inside.

"Here we are," he said softly, letting Jack lie down on the grating in the console room. "You can let go now."

"Thanks," said Jack, swallowing hard.

Donna felt her eyes fill with tears. She barely knew Jack, but he was _dying_ and the Doctor was just standing there! She'd thought Jack was his friend (maybe actually something more) and he just…

"Doctor…" she began.

"Shh," the Doctor murmured.

Jack looked like he was in incredible pain. The Doctor slowly knelt beside him and placed a hand on Jack's forehead. "Jack," he said gently, "can you hear me?"

Jack swallowed hard and nodded.

"I'm going to do what I told you I was going to do earlier, all right? I want to try something."

Jack nodded again.

Donna stayed rooted to the spot. She could barely stand it. "Doctor, what are you doing?" she whispered, her voice shaking. "Aren't you going to… get him to sick bay or something?"

"Sick bay won't help him," said the Doctor quietly. "It just needs to go out on its own." With his left hand, he reached down to grip Jack's tightly; he held the sonic screwdriver in his right. "You ready, Jack?"

"I'm ready."

The Doctor flicked a switch on the sonic with his thumb. Jack's body convulsed once. Donna clapped a hand over her mouth.

The TARDIS doors slammed shut. The Doctor jerked around to look at the console display, though he didn't let go of Jack's hand. Then, the TARDIS lurched. Donna stumbled, gripping the railing to keep herself upright.

"Doctor!" she called. "What's going on?"

The center column began to rise and fall, as the whooshing sound of the TARDIS's engines filled the room. Symbols began appearing on the monitor, slowly at first, and then more rapidly, until they were clearly solidifying into a single English phrase:

Bad Wolf.

The Doctor whooped. "It's working, Jack!" he exclaimed.

"What did you do?" Donna called.

"Attracting both elements!" The Doctor exclaimed. He leapt to his feet, despite the TARDIS's frequent shudders. "Ohh, but it's not stable." Something passed over his face. "Come on…" he murmured pleadingly. "Come on… Get it over quick before there's too much stress."

"Stress on what?" Donna shouted. There was a spark on the console and the TARDIS tipped, sending Donna sprawling. Jack's body slid helplessly across the floor into her and she grabbed him.

"Doctor," she said shakily. "Doctor, he's dead."

"I know," said the Doctor gravely. He slammed his hand down hard on one of the buttons on the console but nothing happened.

This all had to be some kind of dream, Donna decided. It was too surreal. She really wasn't being tossed around an out-of-control spaceship with a dead man in her lap.

There was another spark from the console and the TARDIS seemed to drop. Donna felt her stomach rise, like on a roller coaster.

"We're crashing," said the Doctor unnecessarily. "Ooh, you picked a really good time to conk out on us, Jack."

"Have some sympathy for the dead!" Donna snapped, horrified.

Beside her, Jack gasped. Donna screamed.

"I thought you were dead!"

"I was." Jack reached for the railing above their heads and shakily pulled himself to his feet. "But I'm not anymore. Doctor, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure," said the Doctor faintly. "I think we've made a terrible mistake."


	6. Chapter 5

Rose had never been in greater pain in her life. It felt like every nerve in her body was on fire. Dimly, she could hear Mickey shouting her name, could almost see him dropping his coffee and running toward her, but simultaneously, she could hear nothing but the howling of the Void.

It was like falling backwards. She was conscious of every cell in her body being forced through a tiny hole in the universe, but it was rapidly expanding around her.

She wanted to scream, but she didn't know if she was or not. All she could hear was the sound of Hell.

And just like that, light and darkness exploded in front of her eyes and she slammed into something hard. She was disoriented, didn't even know which way was up. Her brain was trying to tell her she was upside down, but she knew that could not be true.

As the rushing in her ears faded, she could hear someone shouting her name.

A very familiar voice.

A voice she'd only dreamed of hearing ever again.

She pushed against the asphalt beneath her and found she was thankfully right-side up.

He was standing there, true and real and solid, just as she remembered him, tall and wiry, his hair sticking up at all angles. And right there beside him was a man Rose had been _beyond_ sure she would never see again.

It was Jack. Jack was alive, and safe, and with the Doctor. If this was some dream, some side effect of using the dimension cannon, she didn't know what she'd do.

"Doctor," she whispered, but no sound came out. "Jack."

She wanted to run to them and hug them, but she wasn't sure she could stand.

"Rose!"

The Doctor and Jack exchanged glances, both of their expressions breaking into ecstatic grins. As one, they ran to her. Shakily, she got to her feet, just in time to feel them grab her and hold her tight. She didn't even have the strength to hug them back, but simply stood there as both men wrapped their arms around her and each other.

Suddenly, there was a low rumbling, almost like thunder, except Rose knew it was deeper than that.

"What did you do?" she whispered, finally finding her voice. "Doctor, what did you do?"

"I brought you back," he said, pulling back to look at her fully. His eyes were wet. "_We_ brought you back." He looked at Jack. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "Jack, I'm so, so sorry."

There was another low rumble of thunder.

"What is it?" asked Jack, confused.

The Doctor looked at the sky above them. Already, people were beginning to gather in the streets, gawking at the fact that the noonday sun was rapidly disappearing.

* * *

Donna left the TARDIS and approached the three of them.

"Doctor?" she asked hesitantly. "What's going on?"

The Doctor swallowed hard, his arms going around Jack and Rose's shoulders. "The walls between the universes are collapsing."

"The _what_?" asked Donna incredulously.

"When I pulled Rose through–used Jack to pull Rose through–I… I…" He took a deep breath and stepped away from the assembled group. "I thought maybe it wouldn't happen if I pulled her through this fast."

Rose shook her head. "No, that wasn't… that wasn't how we were doing it. Oh my God." She clapped a hand to her mouth. "To Mickey, I just _disappeared_. What's he going to think?"

"We'll find out in a little bit," said Jack darkly. "Whole world's going to collapse."

"Well, what do we do, then?" Donna asked. "How do we keep it from collapsing?"

Jack felt a cold chill run down his spine. He could remember what the Master's paradox machine had done to the Earth, and he didn't want something like this to happen again. If everything collapsed into nothingness, what would happen to him, if he couldn't die?

"What did you say?" the Doctor asked Rose. "What about Mickey?"

Rose began to pace, in a way that reminded Jack quite a bit of the Doctor. There was another thunderous crash but she didn't flinch.

"The dimension cannon," said Rose. "Mickey and I, we found it in the Torchwood archives–at our Torchwood, and Tosh said she thought she could put it together so we tried… and it worked. I traveled to another dimension."

"Tosh?" asked Jack.

Rose ignored him. "I wound up in the wrong universe, but I knew that if I kept going, if we kept trying, then maybe, maybe I'd find you again." She looked at the Doctor, who looked away and then at Jack. "You didn't have to look for me. I was looking for you."

"Right, so now we have to close the gap," said Jack. "Can we do that?"

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know," he said. "We'd need… we'd need something more powerful than the TARDIS." He glanced up at the sky again. It was now pitch black, even darker than night.

"We have to do _something_," said Donna. "We're not going to just let the world collapse." She looked at Rose. "I'm Donna, by the way. I've heard a lot of about you."

Suddenly, the Doctor's eyes lit up. "Rose!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"In your world, in Pete's World, where is Torchwood located?"

"In London," she said, brushing her hair back from her face in concentration. "It's right on top of the Rift."

"The Rift," said Jack quietly. "Doctor, we have to open the Rift."

The Doctor's eyes clouded. "Jack, you know you can't–"

Jack grinned. "Too bad, Doc, we've already done it."

The Doctor stared at him, long and hard.

"Before I found you again," he clarified.

The Doctor still looked skeptical.

"We had to open it once, too," Rose offered slowly. "There was this… sort of time distortion." She looked defensive. "We had people stuck in 1879, we had to!"

"Sounds familiar," said Jack. He jerked his head toward the TARDIS. "Come on, we're going to Cardiff."

The Doctor hesitated.

"Doc, if we don't, you know what's going to happen. I think it's worth the risk."

Rose reached out and took the Doctor's hand. "Come on, Doctor," she said quietly. "The only thing we can do is try. I don't… I don't want to have found you again only to have the world go and collapse on us."

The corners of the Doctor's lips twitched. "Quite right." He looked back and forth between Donna, Jack and Rose. "Allons-y!"

* * *

The sound of the TARDIS's engines cut through the chaos of the Torchwood Hub.

"What on Earth?" murmured Gwen, watching in awe as a 1960s police box materialized in front of her. "Like this day couldn't get any weirder." They'd already been trying to figure out why it had suddenly gone dark outside. People were panicking; it was almost as bad as it had been when all those things had started coming through the Rift. And now, things were starting to appear again.

The police box's doors creaked open and Jack Harkness stepped out. Gwen didn't know whether to throw her arms around him or kill him.

"Miss me?" he asked, giving her a lopsided grin.

"You left us," she said coldly.

"I found him." Despite her anger, despite the situation, Jack's pride was infectious. "I found the man I was waiting for, I found the Doctor."

Tosh looked up from her workstation. "The Doctor?" she asked.

"Hello!" A head of messy brown hair appeared over Jack's shoulder. "I remember you! Dr. Sato!" He beamed. "How did you do with that?"

"Convinced them it was all a hoax," said Tosh primly.

"Good for you! Now!" He pushed past Jack and sprang into the center of the Hub. Jack exited the box, too, followed by two women. Gwen wasn't sure how exactly they had all fit inside, though she supposed the matter of how it had gotten into the Hub was a more pressing question.

"We need to borrow your Rift," said the Doctor. "And we need to use it to seal this gap in the universe."

"Gap?" asked Gwen.

"I assume you noticed the big rip in the sky," said Jack.

"We had," said Tosh dryly. "Owen and Ianto are out doing damage control."

"Good," said the Doctor, nodding. There was another, louder crack from outside and Gwen thought of Rhys, hoped he was okay. "Right!" Then, he sprang into action, and Gwen could see why Jack had gone with him without a moment's thought. He was manic, perhaps, his hands tugging at his hair as he thought, and quite clearly alien, but he also seemed very easy to relate to.

"Rose!" he called. The blonde was Rose, apparently. "Could you get me those cables from under the floor? Yes, they're still in the same spot. Donna, you, too." He sprang over to the Rift Manipulator and examined it closely. "Who did this? Oh, this is just beautiful work."

"That was me," said Tosh.

The Doctor grinned. "Brilliant!" He accepted the cables Rose and Donna were feeding him–how big was that blue box anyway? "Now, Jack. I want you to take over here. Rose and I have to make a long-distance phone call." He handed Jack the bundle of cables and darted back into his ship.

"You could have left a note," said Gwen to Jack, as he knelt to connect the cables to the Rift monitors.

"I'm sorry," Jack said quietly. "He just showed up that day and… well, he has a habit of disappearing just like that. I wanted to catch him before he did." He paused. "Actually, I didn't really. He tried to leave when he saw me coming."

Gwen reached out and squeezed his shoulder. "I'm glad, though. You were waiting so long, it's only fair."

"How have you guys been doing?"

"Oh, we do all right." Gwen smiled. "Don't look so disappointed. We were a mess when you first left, but we've learned to adapt."

"That's good," said Jack, standing. "You never needed me in the first place, see?"

Gwen gave him a wan smile.

"We're good to go up here, Doctor," Jack called down.

"So, what is this place?" asked Donna.

"This is Torchwood," said Jack proudly, waving his hand in a sweeping gesture. "This is where I used to work."

Donna looked at Gwen sympathetically. "Place I used to work was a dump, too. A lot of water damage. _And_ a pest problem."


	7. Chapter 6

The Doctor gave the TARDIS's monitor a thwack and it flickered, seeming unable to decide whether it wanted to display the usual Gallifreyan readout or the ominous phrase _Bad Wolf_. Seeing it made Rose very nervous.

"What are you trying to do, exactly?" she asked him.

"Trying to stabilize the Void," said the Doctor. He tapped a few buttons and the picture flickered again. "I want to try to talk to someone on the other side–if they do the same thing with your Rift that we're doing with ours, we can reverse this. Who did you say it was?"

"Mickey's there, probably," she said. "And Tosh… our Tosh."

The Doctor chuckled. "Parallel world. Love it. Molto bene!"

"You're not going to send me back, are you?" she asked hesitantly.

The Doctor paused, his hand in the process of turning a knob. "Why would I do that?" he asked quietly. "I brought you here. It was wrong and I admit that, but…" He sighed. "We wanted to get you back, Jack and I. Was a bit selfish, is all."

He squeezed her hand and Rose felt flooded with warmth. They'd both wanted to find her. Somehow, knowing that Jack had been in on this, too, made it even better. She hoped that after all this was over, if they kept the worlds from collapsing, the three of them could travel in the TARDIS, together, just like old times.

Just like old times.

She shivered a little involuntarily, remembering what it had been like to be spending so much time with both of these men. For Rose, it had been a completely new experience–Jack and the Doctor were both so, so different from the men she'd known before, and naturally, she'd been attracted to the both of them, not that anything had come of it.

"I'm glad it worked, though," the Doctor said suddenly. "Whole world's falling apart, but I'm glad you came through in one piece."

Rose smiled. "Me too."

For a moment, they just grinned at each other and then, as if this day hadn't been full of impossible things, the Doctor was kissing her. It was quick, too quick, and she'd barely registered the taste of him before he had pulled away, turning to devote his full energies to the TARDIS.

Rose stayed stock still for a moment, barely able to process what had just happened. If she and the Doctor could have something like _this_, then that would be even better. But… Jack's face drifted in front of her mind. She shook her head to clear it.

"Right then," the Doctor announced. "Here we are!" There was another surge of static. "Mick-Mick-Mickey! Can you hear me? Are you there?"

"Doctor?" Mickey's bewildered face appeared amongst the static. "_Rose_?"

"Mickey!" Rose leaned over the monitor so he could see her. "I'm okay."

"What happened?" he asked. "What's going on?" He tapped his computer monitor; Rose recognized it as being the one they'd planned most of the dimension cannon trips from. "The sky's, like, splitting apart."

"Yeah, it's like this on our–on this side, too." She looked up at the Doctor, who had his glasses on and was studying Mickey intently. "The Doctor says he thinks he can fix it."

"So you found him, then?" Mickey sounded as though he was trying to hide his disappointment and Rose felt a pang of guilt.

"Yeah," she said, smiling. "And Jack, too."

"That's great," said Mickey, beaming. "All that work paid off."

Rose's smile widened. Somehow, with everything that was going on, she hadn't been able to fully grasp what it really meant to be back with the Doctor. She'd have to say good-bye to Mickey, forever. And her mother. Her mother didn't even know where she was.

"Mickey," the Doctor continued. "Do you perhaps have a Toshiko Sato there with you?"

"Tosh!" Mickey called over his shoulder and her face soon appeared on the screen.

"Oh, Rose, you did it!" she exclaimed. "And that's the Doctor?"

"In the flesh," said the Doctor proudly. "Toshiko, tell me about your Rift equipment."

"Well," she looked thoughtful. "I built it from different things we found. It was hard, of course, but–"

"You built it?" The Doctor's face lit up. He dashed across the grating and stuck his head out of the TARDIS. "Jack!" he called. "Can I borrow your Toshiko?"

On the screen, Tosh's brow furrowed. A few seconds later, the other Tosh, this world's Tosh, had joined the Doctor and Rose at the viewscreen.

"Oh my God," she whispered. She covered her mouth with her hand. The Tosh on the screen did the same. The Doctor grinned.

"The theory of the multiverse," Tosh breathed reverently.

"It's really true," the one standing next to Rose whispered.

The Doctor's grin widened. "You designed the Rift monitors, didn't you?" he asked again.

The two Toshikos exchanged glances. "Yes," they both said.

"Brilliant!" exclaimed the Doctor.

Rose watched the Doctor as he sprang into action, calling instructions. "Jack! Get those cables linked up. Rose–tell Mickey and your Toshiko to get ready to turn that thing on."

All around her, everyone was getting ready. She'd heard Jack mention he'd worked here, and Gwen and Tosh seemed quicker to trust the Doctor when he came with Jack's endorsement. What Rose really wanted was a chance to talk to both of them, the Doctor and Jack, to tell the how she'd missed them, to hear about everything she'd missed and how they had planned to get her back.

"Rose!" the Doctor called. "Need you out here for a sec!"

"I'll be right back," she promised Mickey and hurried out of the TARDIS.

"Hold these up," the Doctor instructed, thrusting an armload of cables into Rose's arms. "So Jack can connect them."

"These are the equations," said Toshiko, handing him a stack of papers.

"Right," said the Doctor. "Why don't you input them…" His eyes scanned the room. "Donna!" he exclaimed fondly. "Would you like to do some typing?"

Donna beamed and plucked the papers from the Doctor's hands. "They don't call me supertemp for nothing!"

"Once we get those in, the Rift should be active," said the Doctor, running a hand through his hair. "How's it coming, Jack?"

"Almost done," Jack called from the other side of the machine. "I've just got to…" He grunted, and Rose gave him some slack.

The Doctor began pacing. "If we use the TARDIS as a conduit, we should be able to link up the two Rifts and close the Void." He stopped and turned to look Rose squarely in the eye. "This is your last chance," he said in a low voice. "If you're not one-hundred-percent sure you want to stay."

"I am," said Rose confidently, her head filling with images of traveling with the Doctor–and Jack–again. "I want to stay."

The Doctor's gaze lingered on her for another moment; his eyes were full of something Rose couldn't place, but it was almost like gratitude. "All right, then," he said. "Let's do it! How are you coming, Donna?"

"Almost done, Doctor," she announced, typing so swiftly that Rose could hear the keyboard clattering.

"Brilliant! Jack?"

"Nearly… there…" Jack sounded like he was straining, but Rose didn't have any more to give him. She dropped her length of cable and made her way up to him, just in case it had gotten caught on something.

What she saw made her heart stop.

A shower of sparks shot out from the Rift Monitor.

"Jack!" Rose shouted, though no one else seemed to hear her. There was a tremendous crash from outside; she could hear it even as far underground as they were. The Doctor whooped at their apparent success. But Rose's attention was only on Jack.

She knew, even before she reached his side, that he was dead. Her heart sank and she choked back a sob. Vaguely, she could hear the Doctor congratulating everyone, but Rose didn't care. She knelt by Jack, stroking his hair.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "This is all my fault. Jack, I'm so sorry."

She sensed the Doctor's presence behind her, but she didn't turn around. She leaned down to kiss Jack's forehead.

He opened his eyes.

"Needed that," he said weakly.

Rose started. She whipped around to the Doctor, whose face was impassive. "He was dead," she said.

"He was," agreed the Doctor.

"Do we have to explain this again?" Jack asked weakly. He looked so tired, his head lying in Rose's lap. He didn't seem willing or able to stand.

"Explain what?" Rose asked, looking back and forth between them.

"We don't have to now," said the Doctor, kneeling beside them and reaching out to brush Jack's cheek with his fingers.

"She should know," said Jack. The Doctor nodded. He looked up, away from Jack and Rose, to see where Donna was standing by the TARDIS with Gwen and Tosh, watching them.

"Well, it's over now," said the Doctor softly. "We should go." He glanced back down at Jack and Rose for confirmation. Together, the Doctor and Rose helped the still-unsteady Jack to his feet.

He gave Gwen and Tosh an apologetic smile. "Say hi to Owen and Ianto for me."

"Sure thing," said Gwen, giving him a hug.

"Don't be a stranger," Tosh added, hugging him, too.

The TARDIS felt so familiar to Rose, though it also highlighted her absence, and she remembered with a pang how sudden that initial separation had been.

"I'm going to take a bit of a kip if you don't mind," said Donna. "You would not _believe_ the day I've had," she added to Rose. Her smile made Rose grateful for her presence and eager to get to know her.

They said their good-nights and the Doctor, Jack and Rose were left alone in the console room. They said nothing as the Doctor brought the TARDIS into the Vortex.

Finally, he murmured, "Jack, are you tired?"

Jack shook his head. "I think we should tell her. Everything."

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, making it stand on end even more than usual. "Right, then. Yes. We'll go to the library and we'll talk."

* * *

When they reached the library, Jack noticed with a grin that the TARDIS had provided three steaming cups of cocoa.

"So," said the Doctor, taking a seat on the couch. "Where should we start?"

"How about with telling me how he can still be alive?" Rose challenged, perching on the edge of an armchair. "Or how you found him when he was supposed to be in the year 100,000."

The Doctor tugged on his collar and shifted awkwardly. Jack handed him a cup of cocoa and brought one to Rose. She smiled her thanks.

"That's a long story," said the Doctor.

"I don't have anywhere else to go," said Rose. "Everyone else I know is in a parallel universe."

"I can't die," Jack cut in. "I'm immortal."

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Rose asked. "Or did you… did you tell him?"

Jack looked pained. "I'd never keep something like that from you, Rosie. I wasn't immortal back then."

"So…" She looked back and forth between them. "What… What happened? What… caused it?"

"You did," said the Doctor, his tone low. "When you came back for us. He was dead, killed by a Dalek, and then, when you absorbed the Time Vortex, you brought him back to life."

Rose paled. "I… I had no idea, I–I'm sorry, Jack, I–"

Jack crossed the room to pull her into his arms. "Don't. Rose, don't. If I wasn't immortal, I'd have never found the Doctor again. And I wouldn't be here to see you again."

Together, he and the Doctor related the story of what had transpired since they'd last seen Rose, though Jack followed the Doctor's lead in not dwelling on the Master.

When they had finished, Rose was staring at the in shock, he cocoa cold and untouched. "So," she said quietly, "you were trying to get me back the whole time."

The Doctor nodded.

"But I was trying to come back, too," she said.

"I know," said the Doctor. "I think…" He paused, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think something happened, I think… I'm not sure this…" He scratched his nose. "It's a funny thing, fixed events. Time Lord sense tells me… this shouldn't have happened. Not–" He held up his hand. "That I didn't want it to happen. But as I say, fixed events. They say each choice causes a new universe to be created…"

Rose stared at him, round-eyed. "I traveled through _so_ many universes. Each one was different. Are you saying–?"

"You might have _tweaked_ something," said the Doctor. "Based on your own subconscious desires, the universe may have tweaked something."

"So," said Rose calmly. "We wouldn't all be here if I hadn't been traveling through all those parallel worlds."

The Doctor nodded.

Rose got to her feet and walked right towards them. The Doctor and Jack stood, holding out their arms for her and they came together in a three-way hug.

"I wanted to come back to you," Rose said softly, after a while. "To _both_ of you."

And then, before Jack even realized it, Rose was kissing him. He was surprised, having just barely registered what she'd said, but he kissed her back, tightening his grasp on her waist. When they broke apart, Rose turned and kissed the Doctor without preamble. Jack watched them, feeling a tug of desire in the pit of his stomach. When they broke apart, he leaned in and kissed the Doctor.

"I'm just glad," said Rose, blinking back tears. "I'm glad we're all three together. Again."

"And we've got a whole new universe out there to explore," said the Doctor. "Technically speaking. Rose shouldn't have changed much, but still… well, we'll have to see."

Together, they left the library, arm-in-arm, spirits lifted with the hint of the possibility of three impossible things.


End file.
